BOOKTASTIK ARCHIVE

Living the Oath

22 June 2017

Much has been written about the history of the twentieth-century US-based Italian Mafia; their organization, their crimes and their brutality. But who were these people?

What was it like to live a life of crime immersed in an underworld filled with deception, brutality and danger? Did they lose all sense of right and wrong, or were there elements of humanity and decency that survived a lifetime of criminal activity?

Domenico Di Natale, an Italian immigrant to the United States, lived for ninety years – most of those years as a successful mob capo and many years in prison.

What he did, what he learned, how he affected others and, most importantly, who he was are explored in Living The Oath. Was the secret oath of omertà – taken with a bloody finger, a picture of a saint, and a lit match, and which made him a “made man” – the only guiding principle in his life? Or did he possess creativity, loyalty, and other valued traits?

Join Domenico on this journey – he was a gangster, and a son, a husband, a father, a friend, a grandfather, and a great-grandfather.